"The Warrior's Path" by Louis L'Amour

The Warrior's Path had a much more focused plot than the previous two Sacketts books, which I appreciated.  Kin and Yance Sackett (sons of Barnabas, who was the star of those first books) get word that Yance's wife's young sister has disappeared up in Massachusetts, along with a young woman that people believe to be a witch.  Kin and Yance set off through the wilderness, arrive at the colony where the girls lived, discover nobody is particularly inclined to seek the lost girls, and set off to find and rescue them.  

That section was my favorite, as it was filled with the kind of woodcraft and woodlore that has always thrilled me.  I used to read these junior biographies of Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett and Kit Carson and their woodsy brethren over and over and over as a kid -- I even had sections of my favorites memorized.  I would practice tracking critters in the snow: my cats, our dog, birds, raccoons, my little brother, and anything else that traipsed through.  Good, good times.

The Sacketts find and rescue the girls, but Kin thinks this is not enough.  They've uncovered a "white slaver" ring -- we would call them human traffickers today -- that is stealing teenage girls from the colonies in America and selling them to planters in the West Indies.  Kin is sure that, unless they can catch and convict the ringleaders, more girls will keep getting kidnapped and trafficked, over and over.  So he sets off for Jamaica, tracing one of the leaders to Port Royal.

Kin's totally right about the trade in white women not slowing down just because they rescued two girls.  The gang's leaders are making too money to be stopped by the loss of two captives.  They even manage to re-kidnap the older one, Diana, and take her to Jamaica, thinking they can force Kin to stop fighting them by threatening her or something.

But these guys clearly don't understand Sacketts.  Kin won't stop until the gang of traffickers is brought to justice, either at the end of a rope or the end of his sword.  The last quarter of the book has a lot of swashbuckling and swordplay and fist fighting and other thrilling heroics.

Also, Kin and Diana get married.  This is not really a spoiler, as you should be able to see that coming by the time you've finished chapter one.

Particularly Good Bits:

"To make a country we need all kinds.  He is a thoughtful man, and such are needed.  He reads, he thinks.  Too many of us are so busied with living that we do not" (p. 62).

Yet aside from her beauty there was much in her to admire, for she was a quietly capable person who did not scream, faint, or cry so far as I had seen.  She looked matters in the face and did something about them (p. 73).

"You have your books.  They are the best companions" (p. 80).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for lots of violent fights, the understated but obvious fact that these teen girls were being sold as sex slaves, lots of peril and danger, and a handful of old-fashioned cuss words.

This has been my 18th book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.